All posts tagged PEN America

Last night, the PEN American Center held a party to celebrate the latest issue (#11) of the PEN America journal, a bouillabaisse of fiction, poetry, essays and conversations among writers and thinkers that’s been publishing for nearly a decade. The event, held at (Le) Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village, drew a sizable crowd of literary types (horn-rims and sweaters in abundance).

“This is our first party,” said M. Mark, the journal’s editor. Mark had taken the train from Vassar, where she teaches, and was passing around drink chips, which, given the economic climate and the fact that it was after all a book party, felt decadent.

Mark said the party was a thank you to her staff (including the Vassar students she enlists as free-labor interns) and also a celebration of the journal’s revamping. The current issue, which carries the theme “make believe” and features fiction by Ed Park, among other writers, will be available in a greater number of Barnes & Noble and Borders store than ever before and seems to finally have hit its stride editorially.

Paul Auster (“New York Trilogy”), who previously served as the Vice President and Secretary of PEN, was reading at the event, as was Roxana Robinson (“Cost”). Speakeasy found Auster camped out at the bar, drinking white wine. The Brooklyn-based writer has a new novel, “Invisible,” out today and said he just dropped another book off with his publisher. “I’m unemployed at the moment,” he deadpanned.

Auster planned to read the poetry of Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese political activist and intellectual who was arrested in 2008 for speaking out against the government there. In January, 300 writers called for Liu’s release in a statement issued by PEN. Auster took the stage to read soon after, but Speakeasy had to make an early exit to attend another event celebrating small presses across town. Read More »

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.